Columbia University 1968

Police arresting students at Columbia, April 29, 1968. I'm pretty sure this
shot is inside Low Library, in the corridor outside the President's suite.
Notice the students with hands up to protect their heads. The head-bonking
steps and gauntlet with the whacking flashlights awaits to the right.
(Later I was told that this photo was taken on the steps of Avery Hall, but
the ambience is about the same as in the Low corridor.)
Photo: Life Magazine, 10 May 1968.

Still Later (February 2008) I received the following from Ray Lifchez,
Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley, who was an Associate Professor
of Architecture at Columbia University in 1968:

Your excellent photograph was not taken on the steps of Avery Hall as
I and a then unknown to me colleague (Russian literature) were the
only two on the 3 steps leading to the chained door when the
police ordered us (bull horns) to leave, which I did not do, and
consequently, I was badly beaten (several cracked ribs) and carted
off a waiting police ambulance and taken to Knickerbocker Hospital.

So maybe this is in Low after all. Ray continues...

When the students locked Avery, I went to a hastily called faculty
meeting by Lionel Trilling -- as I recall, in the Faculty Lounge (Law
School?) It was at that meeting that I and other faculty volunteered
to remain on campus, at our respective buildings, to "prevent"
"conservative students" from breaking into the buildings to break the
strike. That is how I remember it. But I don't remember the exact
date. I believe it must have been Thursday, April 24, for I stood at
that door continuously, for several days, and through one weekend.
This partly accounts for my exhaustion when the police finally
arrived. From the Avery steps we could see the lights in the Pres
office, Low.